[Football] Winter Break from 19/20 Season/FA Cup Re-jig

[Kinky Gerbil]

Or put another way; players/managers at all levels scramble for any possible excuse for under performing.

Hmm I think league 1/2 and lower champ squads with tiny squads do have a point on this.

Also it is teams from all positions in the league asking for it.

 

[Stat Brother]

Surely they will have to ban this.

It's the only reason they've agreed to it.

 

[Gazwag]

Isn't the idea to protect those players that are playing in those international breaks – i.e. they're not getting days off, they're playing 2 international fixtures in a week?

The tough life of a premier league footballer

 

[Bold Seagull]

The tough life of a premier league footballer

I'm not saying it's a tough life. How many major international tournaments have been won by nations that don't have some form of mid-season / winter break?

 

[Gritt23]

Hmm I think league 1/2 and lower champ squads with tiny squads do have a point on this.

Also it is teams from all positions in the league asking for it.

Teams from all positions lose a game, or fear losing a game, and THAT is when they spout all the usual nonsense about being tired, too many fixtures, kick-off times favouring other teams blah blah blah. Just because managers and players complain about something it doesn't mean it's a valid complaint.

 

[Gazwag]

I'm not saying it's a tough life. How many major international tournaments have been won by nations that don't have some form of mid-season / winter break?

I'm pretty sure a two week holiday in the middle of the season has zero effect on the ability of a country to win a World cup or European cup

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Teams from all positions lose a game, or fear losing a game, and THAT is when they spout all the usual nonsense about being tired, too many fixtures, kick-off times favouring other teams blah blah blah. Just because managers and players complain about something it doesn't mean it's a valid complaint.

You only have to look at the standard of football over the Xmas period to realise it is completely valid.

 

[Joe Gatting's Dad]

Scrap the pointless League Cup and play the F A Cup midweek.

Scrap the league match between Boxing Day and New Years Day - 2 games in 6 days is enough. This missing game could be played midweek instead with extra day from the above.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I would make the FA Cup an entirely midweek competition and scrap all replays. Nobody cares about it, nobody takes it seriously so why waste weekends on it? You could run the Premier League as an entirely weekend-only competition as a result, ensuring a week between every single fixture.

Its the FA Cup. It should be bloody sacrosanct. The fans DO care about it, but when the clubs and managers stop caring and play weakened teams, the fans enthusiasm wavers. If the clubs can be convinced it is worthwhile, then the fans will love it in their droves again

 

[Da Man Clay]

Hmm I think league 1/2 and lower champ squads with tiny squads do have a point on this.

I’m sure they do - but as it won’t affect those clubs it’s a bit pointless.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

Make the League Cup just for the 72 Football League teams (maybe the Conference as well if they want to boost numbers a bit). Give these smaller teams such as Leeds and Sheff Weds the chance of a day out at Wembley. More midweek matches earlier in the season and bin those pointless international breaks. Seemed such a stop-start first few months. Insist on UEFA tightening the Champions League. This current round is taking five weeks to complete and totally hogs the domestic schedule. No more Monday and Friday night football unless the teams are local. No Saturday 7.45 kos ever. FA Cup matches on Saturday-Sunday. Replays on Tuesday-Wednesday. Champions League spot for the winner.

 

[Mellotron]

What a horribly boring time of year to have no footy to watch though. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?

 

[Giraffe]

My issue with this has always been how do they know what the weather will do?

I know the pitches will always be okay, but games get called off nowadays because the public areas are too snowy/icy. Guaranteed that the first time they do this, there will be a bad winter with games being called off leading to fixture congestion at the end of the season just because the overpaid gits need another two week break.

Sure if it helps our national team, but frankly with the amount of foreign players in the Premier League it's just as likely to help everyone else as well. The Belgium team will love it!

Maybe they should try doing a proper weeks work then they wouldn't complain about getting tired?

 

[Nixonator]

The most pointless and unnecessary change to date.

Frankly I couldn't give a **** if this new convoluted European Cup means the top 4 are playing too many games in addition to the domestic cup competitions. That's what their absurdly large and talented squads are for presumably. Neither do I think it will help our national team whatsoever. There always has to be some excuse for us not doing well in tournaments, it can't possibly be just that we weren't/aren't very good... has to be the fixtures schedule at fault even though most of this league isn't english in terms of starting 11's.

This 'too many games' thing is just an utter nonsense for managers to excuse a bad performance.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I’m sure they do - but as it won’t affect those clubs it’s a bit pointless.

The Football league will follow, championship clubs will rightly say they have squads full of internationals

 

[Pavilionaire]

Personally, I would scrap all international friendlies and look to reduce the amount of qualifiers too.

Secondly, I would keep FA cup replays - they are part of what the FA Cup is all about. Small teams who defy the odds to snatch a draw at full-time and who get a big pay day in the replay will in future be steamrollered in extra time by the big boys. If these rules were in place now then Rochdale wouldn't be having their big day out at Wembley and probably wouldn't have been in the hat for the quarter-final draw.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Personally, I would scrap all international friendlies and look to reduce the amount of qualifiers too.

Secondly, I would keep FA cup replays - they are part of what the FA Cup is all about. Small teams who defy the odds to snatch a draw at full-time and who get a big pay day in the replay will in future be steamrollered in extra time by the big boys. If these rules were in place now then Rochdale wouldn't be having their big day out at Wembley and probably wouldn't have been in the hat for the quarter-final draw.

Slow eroding of the traditions, been going on for decades. Remember multiple replays!

 

[Pavilionaire]

Slow eroding of the traditions, been going on for decades. Remember multiple replays!

Sure do. Arsenal v Massive, 1979 - 5 matches in 16 days. 1-1, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 2-0.

 

[BigGully]

The winter break has been skewed into something it never was, it came about in Europe because of the cold snowy winters which rendered most games during the mid winter season unplayable, so for them irrespective of not now needing the break the schedule is already embedded within their footballing culture.

Somewhere along the line european players came to England (for the money), and when continually asked by our media why the England football team was unable to win any major international tournaments they cited the relentless games schedule, especially around Christmas time and the FA found that more comfortable than actually grasping the nettle and finding a way to restrict foreign players being employed by the clubs foreign owners who have absolutely no incentive nor care whether the England football team succeeded or not.

The myth that we need a mid season break seems to have stuck for no particular reason.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I would have thought January would have been a better time for it. Either The two weeks after the new years day games(when players have a genuine right to feel excessively tired) or the last two weeks so you don't have deadline day on a match day. Either would benefit the Albion as we seem to have a bit of a results blip under Hughton in January.